Over the Brink Of Insanity
by Coondog
Summary: Ever think the world of Ride was a little fishy? Here's why. Enjoy!


**My buddies came up with this idea when we were bored one day. I personally like the concept, but I don't matter. Your opinion matters. I REALLY like reviews, so don't be afraid to say whatever about it. **

**Enjoy!**

**-Coondog**

_

* * *

The door. It moved._

Max shivered and watched the door. How long was it since Ari had caught her and thrown her in this cell? Several months, maybe even a year. She shivered again. _Someday, Ari, I will get out of here. _

She was crouched on the floor in a completely white room. Everything was soft and padded, and that could be both a blessing and a curse. She couldn't hurt herself, so she couldn't ask for medical attention and with it a chance to escape. However, with the lack of furniture in the room, it was nice to have the floor padded so she could sleep comfortably.

She studied the door again. It was no longer moving, so she relaxed slightly. Her arms were strapped tightly to her body in a straitjacket, and she hadn't been able to feel her wings for some time. She marveled at Ari's genius, but it still ticked her off that all she could do was stumble around leaning on the padded walls.

A hatch in the door slid open.

"Max?" said a voice. Ari's voice. His eyes peered in through the hatch.

Max shot up from her crouch and tried to ram into the door hatch with her head. She was screaming and snarling at the top of her voice. Her only thought was to get out, to kill Ari!

"Whoa!" Ari said, and backed away from the door. His eyes disappeared from Max's view.

"NO!" Max yelled, and rammed the soft and padded door with her head again. "Lemme out!"

* * *

Doctor Aron Ari tentatively shut the hatch. He _knew _he was getting into something unexpected when he took the counseling job at the Insane Asylum.

"How is she?" His manager, a nice old man named Jeb, asked as Aron turned away from the door. Jeb was required to go to Ms. Ride's cell when it was her turn; the woman was completely unpredictable and irreversibly insane.

"Worse. She's still convinced she's a fourteen year old girl with bird wings and a mission to save the world. She thinks I'm a werewolf, or Eraser, or whatever, and I imprisoned her because I'm in love with her and want to mash her face in."

"Worse." Jeb agreed. " What is this world coming to?"

Aron shrugged. "By the way, she thinks you are a genetic scientist who betrayed her and her 'flock'."

"She's still stuck on that imaginary friend stage, huh?" Jeb said. "Do they have names?"

Aron nodded. "A couple of kids ranging from six to fourteen. They're called Angel, Nudge, Gasman, Iggy, and Fang. Pet names."

Jeb wrote something down on his clipboard. "Okay. I'll take this to the pharmacist and see if we need to up her meds."

"Careful, we don't want to give her too much. She's forty with a weak immune system, so we could have problems."

Jeb put his clipboard under his arm and walked away. "Attend to your other clients, Ari." he said, and turned a corner.

* * *

Max was asleep. She had exhausted herself attacking the door and was snoring peacefully. The mist that had veiled her mind had been lifted in her frenzied 'attack' and although she didn't know it, her sanity had returned after a particularly hard blow to the head.

She stirred, and woke up. The first thing she realized is that she was in an Insane Asylum. A fleeting picture of Fang flashed through her head, before it blurred out and disappeared rapidly.

She shook her head and looked down at the straitjacket. _I must be insane._ She thought. _But if I'm insane, would I know it?_

_I don't think so._

Max leaped for joy before realizing she couldn't catch herself. She landed hard on her back and burst out laughing. _My life was wasted, but now I can redeem it!_ she thought happily. _I'll find the cure for cancer, that's what I'll do, at least until they let me out._

Max crouched in her favorite corner and mulled stuff over. She was thinking about human biology and the properties of physics, and she realized that this was _easy._ She would cure cancer in no time, and maybe AIDS too!

"I got it!" she said, leaping up. "The cure for cancer is..."

Ari peered in. "Max? Time for your meds."

"What? Wait, no, I'm sane..."

Very small ventilation holes opened up in the ceiling. The staff of the Asylum had considered her too dangerous to give the meds to her firsthand, so they pumped medication into the air of her chamber.

"No, I'm sane, but... but..." Max suddenly couldn't remember what she was going to say.

Then she remembered, oh yes!

"I can flyyyyyy!"

END


End file.
